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Guided Tours of Aoraki Mount Cook, New Zealand

Discovery Tours Introduction

If you are looking for an experience to add that something special to your holiday you just found it!

Discovery Tours offer quality guided tours of Aoraki Mount Cook with local guides to help you discover the unique features that make up New Zealand. From glaciers to Lord of the Rings, we have a variety of travel tours in Canterbury ranging from easy two hour relaxed tours to all day wilderness hikes off the beaten track.

Our guided tours of Aoraki Mount Cook have small guide to client ratios—typically six to nine people per guide, depending on the type of tour. We take you away from the crowded public areas and into places only your local guides know how to find, or to areas only Discovery Tours has access to.

Exclusive tours can be arranged by choosing one or more of our trips in a combination, and we can adjust any of our experiences to suit your requirements—including sumptuous alpine picnics.

Both directors Vernon Reid and Elayne Nilson-Reid, have a long association with Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, having worked for the Department of Conservation as park rangers. In addition Elayne has a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology (the study of the interaction between living organisms and the physical environment) from Otago University.

For further information about our travel tours in Canterbury, please contact us or visit our guided tours of Aoraki Mount Cook Web site.

Our Guided Tours of Aoraki Mount Cook

Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is an awe inspiring alpine region. With the tallest mountains and longest glacier in New Zealand, this area has spectacular scenery all year round. Since 1894 guides have taken visitors on travel tours of Canterbury to explore the beauty of the glaciers and mountains.

Join your guide to enjoy walks ranging from a challenging full day, to an easy hour, learning about the history, wildlife, and glaciers of this impressive alpine environment, all under the gaze of the mighty Aoraki Mount Cook.

Tasman Glacier Tours

• Glacier Discovery – Perfect for those with only a little time to explore New Zealand's largest glacier. Travel approximately 10 kilometres into the mountains before the 3.5-kilometre drive along the historic 4WD Ball Hut Road. Get to the best viewpoint over the Tasman Glacier—this is 3.5 kilometres closer than the public Tasman Glacier viewpoint leaving from the Blue Lakes carpark. Short 10 to 15 minute rocky uphill walk to a spectacular 18-kilometre (12-mile) panorama from the white ice down to the glacial lake.
• Ultimate Glacier Discovery – All of the Glacier Discovery Tour and more! The only guided glacier tour giving you two completely different views of the glacier. An additional easy 30-minute walk on a gravel path through a lunar landscape of jumbled rocks and carpet moss leading down to the lake with panoramic views of the Tasman Valley and Mount Cook. Get the chance to touch 500-year-old glacial ice crystals.

Guided Wilderness Hikes

• East Hooker Valley Hike – Experience the real beauty of the Hooker Glacier by branching off the crowded walking track onto a route over ancient glacial moraines. Pass pure alpine streams on our easiest hike to get a closer look at the Hooker Glacier under the snow covered slopes of Aoraki Mount Cook. Moderate fitness needed. Total time approximately 5 to 6 hours including lunch and short breaks.
• Wakefield Ridge Hike – With no marked track, this offers the experience of solitude. The steep route becomes easier as you rise above the valleys to extensive vistas over the lower Tasman and Hooker valleys, down to the turquoise waters of lake Pukaki. Moderate to high fitness required. Total time approximately 6 to 7 hours including lunch and short breaks.
• Ball Ridge Hike – Hike into the mountains alongside the impressive Tasman Glacier, witnessing the astonishing changes to New Zealand's largest glacier and the landscape through climate change. A short, steep hike will leave you in awe of Aoraki Mount Cook, rising over two kilometres above you. Moderate to high fitness required. Total time approximately 7 to 8 hours including lunch and short breaks.
• Mount Sebastopol Hike – A steep walk leads to the start of the route to Mount Sebastopol. Passing alpine tarns (small lakes) and hiking through flowing tussock will reward you with panoramic views from Aoraki Mount Cook, the Southern Alps to the vast plains of the Mackenzie Basin and Lake Pukaki. High fitness required. Total time approximately 5 to 6 hours including lunch and short breaks.

Tours From Twizel

• Twizel Heartland Tour – Explore the evolution of the Mackenzie Country from the early Maori hunters, followed by the European settlers, through to the saving of Twizel. Your local and knowledgeable guide will give you an insight into all this and share their passion for the real New Zealand that they know and care for.
• Lord of the Rings: Location of Gondor – This relaxed and fun tour will take you through the many scenes from the final movie that were filmed here over one month, including the largest ever day of filming in the trilogy with over 1,500 actors and crew involved. A must for the Lord of the Rings fans or for those who are just interested in movie making.

Alps2ride

The only place in New Zealand where you get the combination of a helicopter flight with snow landing, followed by an optional swim in an alpine tarn (small lake) and then a fun, downhill mountain bike ride. Learn about the once great glaciers that created the valley you ride through and the awesome geology that continues to form the mountains you landed on.

For further information about our travel tours in Canterbury, please contact us or visit our guided tours of Aoraki Mount Cook Web site.

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